Seven survivors and nine coffins bearing Japanese victims of the Algerian hostage massacre have been repatriated. A tenth body will be flown back to Japan in the coming days.

For the Japanese, the killings by Islamist terrorists are the worst after the attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, when 24 of them were among the dead.

In all, more than 30 foreign hostages were killed at the In Aménas gas plant in the Algerian Sahara, according to the Algerian government.

Family members expressed their emotion with restraint.
Family members expressed their emotion with restraint.
A brother of one of the deceased, said: “It is such a loss. I want to see him soon.”

Respects were paid at the Tokyo headquarters of the construction company JGC which employed the ten murdered Japanese.

This local resident said: “They went out of their way to go out there to do their jobs and happened to get caught up in this terrorist act. I felt so sorry for them, it was so sad. I live around here and know JGC well, so I really wanted to pay my respects with flowers.”

Romania on Thursday buried two of its nationals who died in the massacre – in Barcanesti and Ploiesti. One had returned to work at the gas plant after celebrating Christmas with his wife and children in Romania.

A local resident there said: “He left for Algeria to work. He wanted to build a house. He had two children. One is still not born, and another one is aged 6 or 7. People are saying he was very nice man.”

It was the last Christmas for another father of two, also an engineer.

For the gas plant’s French logistician, whose remains were returned to Paris this week, the funeral will be held in a few days.

The sister of Yann Desjeux said: “All the accounts we’ve heard so far show that he behaved as a hero, helping the other hostages. I know he helped get a doctor to a Norwegian who was injured while he was tied up. We are proud of him.”